Inside the Shroud
by SG1Rocker
Summary: Takes place during the last half of season 10. MAJOR MAJOR spoilers included. More indepth summary with story.


**Title: Inside the Shroud**

**Summary**: I'm just really bad at these. Read it and find out. It'll be a surprise…to you and me!

**Spoilers**: We've all heard spoilers for the 2nd half of season 10, including Daniel becoming a Prior, a lip-lock between two "fan favorites" and all that other stuff. We've heard Jack is coming back for The Shroud, Sam goes to an alternate reality…all kinds of stuff. Like I said, major spoilers for the 2nd half of season 10. Takes place after The Road Not Taken and before Bad Guys.

**Pairings**: S/J (hey now, it is me after all.), hints of D/V, Sam/Vala friendship.

**Rating**: I'm totally not good at this stuff. T for now, M later. Maybe some Sam and/or Vala whump later.

**Disclaimer**: Poor college student, up to her ears in student loans and saving up pennies for AT3. Don't own any of it, and it'll be hard to get my Bachelor's Degree if you sue me.

**Author's** **Note**-This story will be Sam-focused and Vala-focused. I'm really disappointed in the writing that has taken place between these two characters, so this is my version of what I would write given the chance. I hated Vala at first, but she's actually starting to grow on me. I have the two living together; if you've ever seen Dead Like Me, I guess you could parallel them to George and Daisy. When Vala's backstory is mentioned, I'm using what little we know and adding in my own stuff. I'll try to update once a week, but RL can be a pain in the behind.  Reviews are love.

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**Chapter 1: The Roommates**

(Aka...the "much backstory" chapter)

Samantha Carter sat up in her bed, glaring at her alarm clock. It read 0600, which meant she had to be on the base in an hour for a final briefing before SG-1's next mission to P5R-576. It had been their first mission since she had returned to active duty after her time in an alternate reality, and she wasn't sure how she felt about that at the moment.

She got into the shower, letting the warm water awaken her mind and muscles. She got out and dressed, feeling a little better about facing the day. Leaving her bedroom, she saw Vala Mal Doran in the hallway, leaving the bathroom. The two women had moved in together after returning from their quest for the Sangraal, Sam citing a need to be less attached to the base. She had seen the same need in Vala, and she had talked General Landry into asking permission for Vala to move off the base. "I set the coffee maker to start at 6:45 before I went to bed last night, so it should be all ready." Vala told her.

"You didn't have to do that. I thought it was my morning." She answered.

The two had fallen into a comfortable routine of living together. Sam hadn't ever seen herself living with someone like Vala, but it turns out they were more similar than either of them had realized. Vala too had lost her mother when she was a teenager. Vala's father had gotten remarried to a 'witch of a woman' named Adria, whom she had named her half-Ori daughter after, and she had left the family. Sam had felt a similar disconnect to her father after her mother had died; throwing herself into her schoolwork and losing touch with him over the years. Another little known fact about Vala; the woman had an older brother, unknown even to Daniel. Sam knew that Vala would never be Janet, but it felt nice to once again have a female friend at work. And, when Cassie had met Vala for the first time, it was clear that the college junior had taken a liking to her fellow alien.

Vala smiled at her. "Well, I figured you'd need a little extra pick-up up this morning, so I read on your internet how to make that drink you like and bought me on the way home the other day, oh, what did you call it," she paused. Vala was slowly becoming acclimated to the words of Earth culture, but there were things that still took a moment to think about, "a latte!" She said, excited that she could think of it herself. "So, you make breakfast and I'll make the drinks." Vala said.

Sam smiled. "Sounds good."

The two had bonded, over the similarities in their shared pasts, and over the events of the past few months in their lives. Both were still reeling over the disappearance of Daniel, and then seeing him as a Prior. Then there had been the fiasco with the bounty hunter when Cameron had taken her to his high school reunion to try and get her mind off Daniel. Soon after, they had found Daniel, and General O'Neill had paid a visit to the SGC. Then had come the mission to Thilana's planet, where Sam had nearly died, trying to protect her people from the Ori by trying to shift them into an alternate dimension. She had been shot by an Ori soldier holding a staff weapon of some kind; the same one that Vala had seen Tomin use and kill several people with.

Vala respected the Lieutenant Colonel as a woman and soldier before that point, but that respect had reached a new level after there had been an explosion at the SGC caused by an Ori device that caused Sam to shift to an alternate reality. When she had found a way back, Vala had been able to tell that something had happened to her there, something big. Call it female intuition. Sam's first night back at home she had been ordered on bed rest, so Vala had come into her room with a pint of ice cream and gently asked Sam what went on. She had explained how she had been a Major in the Air Force, a special advisor to the President, and the Stargate program had gone public because of the Ori taking over the planet. President Hayes and his administration had been a joke, she remarked with a bitter laugh. They were just puppets of the Ori.

McKay had been there, that had surprised her the most, and he had been the one to tell her that she had become a widow.

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Vala remembered the longest pause in the conversation after that. On their second night in their house, about a week and a half after Daniel disappeared, Sam had gotten Vala to admit that her feelings for Daniel ran deeper than just being worried about his disappearance. The alien had a pretty good idea that the feelings between Sam and her former commanding officer ran deep; she remembered the looks they were giving each other when he came to visit the SGC when Martin Lloyd was pitching his movie.

Sam had admitted to Vala that her relationship with Jack went further than the occasional visit to the SGC. When she had suggested the wedding scene for Martin's "Wormhole X-Treme" movie, she hadn't been far off. They had been planning a small wedding and were about to tell the rest of SG-1, but then the Ori had shown up and Sam had been recalled to Stargate Command. After the alternate reality McKay had told her that an Ori Prior had killed the alternate O'Neill, Sam didn't know what to do. Things started to go wrong after that, and those were things that Sam still wasn't comfortable with telling her.

If she were still the same woman she was 2 years ago, Vala would've pressed for details. But, she wasn't that same woman anymore. She was fighting, and it wasn't just for herself anymore. She was fighting for the daughter she had had, seemingly lost to the Ori. She was fighting to save Tomin, who would always have a place in her heart, and now she was fighting to save Daniel, and bring him back from the dark place he had gone. And, a little part of her thought that she was fighting to save herself.

The two of them living together wasn't just about being detached from the base. The two friends were perhaps saving each other.

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They spent breakfast talking about various things; the upcoming mission, Vala's aptness at making a vanilla latte, and hosting the next team night. Sam looked at her watch and spoke. "We've got to get going." She noted, putting her plate in the sink.

Vala followed, grabbing her coat after Sam. "In Colonel Mitchell's words, let's go explore the mysteries of P5R-576!" She said.

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-So, what did you think? Like the Sam/Vala interaction? If not…we'll, I'll remember that and tone it down in the rest of the story.

-Leave me a note if you can! I love reading them, and they really do help me out. 


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